Text: John 1:1-18
SN: 0039 12/25/23
The Greatest Mystery
Our world is full of mysteries. I could drop a pencil from the pulpit and know that it will hit the floor, but I don’t think I could explain to you why it does. I understand the concept of gravity and think it has something to do with the curvature of space-time, but I can’t explain it much better. I learned that light is both a wave and a particle, but I can’t explain that very well, either. I love listening to music but writing and reading it are mysteries to me.
These are just a few mundane mysteries that we encounter every day of our lives. These are things we can’t explain, but we believe and accept them as real. Today, we are celebrating a far greater mystery, perhaps the greatest mystery that has ever happened in the history of the world. The Apostle John describes this great and mighty wonder in beautiful and poetic words, “The Word became flesh and dwelled among us.” What powerful words! What a beautiful mystery that Jesus Christ, God from eternity, took on human flesh and was born of the Virgin Mary.
For almost 2,000 years, humanity has struggled to understand this greatest of mysteries. We have struggled to understand how God could become man. John begins his Gospel at the beginning of all things. He underscores the eternal nature of our Savior by revealing to us that Christ was with God the Father at the creation of the universe. These simple words contain complicated concepts beyond our limited human ability to comprehend. The mystery of eternity is that God existed before the creation of time itself. That God exists in eternity that extends in both directions beyond the explanation of time—the profound mystery of the Trinity itself. We worship one God in Three persons and three persons in one God.
As we ponder the birth of our Savior. As we rejoice in the truth that God became flesh and made his dwelling among us, we must keep these amazing mysteries in mind. Jesus is God, that Jesus is eternal, that Jesus and the Father are one, and yet it was not the Father who was born in that lowly manger but the Son who was begotten of the Father from eternity. Dear friends, this mystery is beyond our understanding. This is a mystery that is only revealed to us through the Words of Scripture, and it is a mystery that is only believed by the miracle of the Holy Spirit working faith in our hearts. This mystery is the foundation of our faith.
What joy! What wonder we have as we consider this greatest of miracles and mysteries. But as we consider the birth of our Savior, we must also remember the reason that Christ needed to become flesh and make his dwelling among us. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth in sinless perfection. He created Adam and Eve in his perfect image. But Adam and Eve disobeyed the command of God, and all mankind was cursed with sin and death. By nature, we are all born dead in sin and hostile to God. We are incapable of keeping God’s holy law. We daily sin much in our thoughts, words, and actions. God, in his perfect holiness, cannot tolerate our sinfulness. God must punish our sins.
But our God is also a God of love and grace. God does not want to condemn his children to the fires of hell. God wants to save us. We cannot save ourselves, and so God, in the greatest act of love, chose to save us himself. He sent his one and only Son to take on human flesh to save us. As the Apostle Paul beautifully writes for us, “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son to be born of a woman, so that he would be born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so that we would be adopted as sons. And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts to shout, ‘Abba, Father!’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if you are a son, then you are also an heir of God through Christ.”
This is the wondrous mystery of our salvation. Jesus Christ, God from eternity, was born as a helpless baby so that he could live a perfect life in our place. He would then offer his perfect life as a ransom to pay for the sins of the whole world. Jesus Christ, true God from eternity, suffered and died
on the cross to redeem us from our sins. The only Son of God died so that we could be adopted as Sons of God most high and receive the gift of eternal life instead of eternal death.
This is the amazing mystery of Christmas. This is the beauty of knowing that the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. Our God loved us so much that the Creator took on the form of the fallen creature to save us. The body that was in the manger was the same body that hung on a cross for our sins, and it is the same body that, in another mystery beyond comprehension, is giving to us to eat and to drink for the forgiveness of sins.
Dear friends, I cannot adequately explain to you the mystery of gravity or music. I also cannot explain to you the mystery of the incarnation of how God became man and made his dwelling among us. But what I can proclaim to you is the message that our God loved us so much that he came and lived as one of us so that he could suffer and die and save us from our sins. Amen.
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!